A few weeks after becoming State President in 2008, Ian Khama casually announced that he was going to introduce alcohol levy.
In the end, what many had dismissed as a joke soon morphed into an economic nightmare that affected industries did not know how to deal with.
In the beginning the local brewer attempted the legal route to block Khama, before chickening out when realizing that this was not a casual joke.
What followed thereafter became a bloodbath as the President took every opportunity to raise the levy as and when he pleased.
The commentary is not about the bad consequences of the levy, but rather how the levy has since been mismanaged.
Its time Botswana Government accepted that it has to function through normal parameters where promises to the public are honoured and all rules of accountability are followed.
That can only happen if Botswana Government subjects itself to ethical standards of public accountability.
Of course that is not easy, especially if those in leadership are at a personal level unwilling to be honest in their individual dealings.
The alcohol Levy was created out of a whim, with no operational rules in place, no policies ÔÇô neither for its establishment nor for its management.
That was borne out by the inconsistencies that manifested themselves in the way the levy was itself administered at the beginning. Locally based companies, like Kgalagadi Breweries were treated worse off compared to those based in other countries like the Namibian Breweries, for example.
The loose management of the Alcohol Levy is easily one of the most glaring examples of the Government’s lack of commitment to all the known basic and elementary principles of good governance.
In coming up with the Alcohol Levy, Botswana Government, among other things said the money would be used to construct rehabilitation centres.
The Alcohol Levy has wrecked thousands of lives.
It has collapsed not just businesses but industries.
People who relied for their lives on alcohol ÔÇô directly or indirectly have suffered immensely as a result of the levy.
There is no evidence to suggest that alcohol consumption declined.
There is no evidence or proof of how many families or marriages were saved from collapse as a result of the levy.
But there is evidence everywhere around us of people who are out of work as a result of the introduction of the levy. From down south to the northern tip of the country, there are many examples of industries that went belly up as a result of the levy. These are real lives of real people.
Botswana Government can show that it cares by honoring the lives of these people that it wrecked.
That could be done by properly managing the Alcohol Levy Fund.
That could be done by building rehabilitation centres for people such as alcohol addicts.
That could be done by putting into place proper governance structures for the levy and enhancing transparency.
Right now the Fund is surrounded by opaque governance structures made all the worse by the trust deficit that exists on this Government.
Creating proper Governance structures would dispel the current notion that the levy was created as just one of the slush funds for those in power.
Of course that sounds like day dreaming.
This country has never committed itself to any form of public accountability and public scrutiny, especially when it comes to public finance.
Almost ten years, Government has not built a single rehabilitation centre.
That is damning.
